With due respect to the previous poster....I did not want to hijack the other "survival" thread. The below listed link is an excellent article from 2006 - Creative Loafing Atlanta. For those of you not familiar, CL is a free "underground-type" newspaper that has been around ATL for awhile. The article is authored by Scott Freeman....an excellent Atlanta area freelancer.

With the interest on this board regarding the Smoky Mountain backcountry, backpacking and survival skills you may find it interesting....the article goes into an in depth story of Rudolph's ability to stay a literal step ahead of the authorties. He knew the area....an area that many of us hike and fish. One of the FBI Special Agents (Jack Kilorin) stated that searching for Rudolph was like chasing the "Hole In The Wall" gang. He (Rudolph) was in his element (mountains of NC) and the FBI was not. The Feds were using all this high-tech gadgetry all the while dressed like commandos with 2-way radios blaring. I told an FBI friend of mine that if they wanted to search the mountains for him....put on chest waders, grab a flyrod....and hike the streams.....but I digress.

The article is fascinating:

http://clatl.com/atlanta/a-hero-in-his-own-eyes/Content?oid=1260764

Jim Casada

09-22-2010, 11:44 AM

Drifter--Interesting, especially given the fact that a lot of locals felt Eric Rudolph did not possess anything approaching the level of woodsmanship many old-time mountain hunters and fishermen possess. Also, keep in mind where and how he was caught. Dempster dumpster diving (in effect) does not equate to consummate woodscraft.

However, there's no doubt that the Feds involved in searching for him (and spending our tax dollars) were an ongoing joke. They had no more idea how to achieve oneness with the Smokies than I have understanding of quantum physics.

One other point--Rudolph almost certainly had quite a bit of help from local sympathizers.

Jim Casada
www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com

Drifter

09-22-2010, 12:04 PM

Jim,

I had this same discussion with my FBI contacts. I tried to tell them that they were alienating the local populus by tromping through their pastures, and farmland without first asking for permission or at least introducing themselves. It was a public relations nightmare. I also remember driving through Murphy and seeing them dressed in their commando uniforms, huddled around their heavily-tinted black Chevy Surburbans. It was comical really. I don't think anyone invisioned these guys actually catching Rudolph.

It was kind of ironic that he (Rudolph) was actually eating at the same restaurant as the agents (although he was getting his sausage biscuit out of the dumpster while the agents got theirs in the standard manner).

I thought it was pretty neat to read about the silos, the church and the various restaurants he dumpster dived at. The Valley River and airport were prominantly mentioned as well.

Crockett

09-22-2010, 01:10 PM

Thanks for the article drifter it was indeed interesting. I happen to agree with much of what he believed in but I tell you that bombing people including little children at the olympics (how that relates to abortion God only knows) with gunpowder and 3 inch cut masonry nails bought that little coward a one way ticket to ****. I bet he was hiding from the teen couple having sex cause the little girl could probably have whooped his a** and drug him in hehe.

I think you are right about covering the streams first and maybe putting in some cameras on the few local restaurant dumpsters around since he wasn't in the backcountry. Makes me wonder if the FBI couldn't catch him because they mistakenly bought the hype that he was some mountain man living way back in the woods instead of looking behind the local trash bins.

Owl

09-24-2010, 06:10 AM

While I've had some strange things happen to me while in the mountains of NC, TN and GA - the following is probably one of the strangest - or at least the one incident that made me the most uncomfortable...

I was fishing Fires Creek with another angler from NGTO. I'm not sure if this was during the time that Rudolph was still at large or if it was after the fact, but remembering how it went down, it almost had to be before they found him.

We were fishing Fires Creek and having a decent day, hiking up the stream at a point where the road was very high above. We noticed a pretty large waterfall coming in from the non-road side and made our way to it. I wanted to climb it and check for brookies, but my partner was having a good day fishing Fires and didn't want to make the fairly dangerous looking climb. I agreed that we should probably just stick with the creek we were in and we turned to head back down, this time cutting through the woods in order to come out a little upstream of the junction between the two. As we got away from the spray of the waterfall we walked right into a "camp" of sorts. A small tee-pee shelter covered with pine and other tree limbs, and a single-person sized fire ring with some charred wood still in it - probably a few days to a couple weeks old. We looked at each other, and then both looked around in a 360 circle. Then, we both said quietly that it was probably time to just keep moving.

The "campsite" was backed up to a steep wall in the landscape where a vertical falls was present. There was only one way to easily approach it and that was from the stream side. You could not access the campsite directly from the road. You would have to get in the creek and walk upstream at least a 1/2 mile, or get in above the junction and walk downstream almost as far, as best I can remember. The road could be seen(and heard) from the creek, but it was 40 or 50 feet above it, straight up. To both of us it seemed the perfect place to protect your rear and have escape routes upstream, downstream and behind you if you were able-bodied enough to scurry up the steep wooded hill that ran off from the waterfall.

That experience, whether Rudolph had been there or it was just someone enjoying "roughing it" was the first of three strange or uncomfortable things that would happen to me over the last 10 years or so. The other two were being turned down for a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway by a serial killer( possibly), and spending the night unprepared in the woods after getting lost.

I'm not even sure if Rudolph made it all the way across the mountains to the Fires Creek area, but it's easy enough to hitchhike a ride there by car. Still gives me the chill-bumps either way.

mcfly

09-24-2010, 08:27 PM

While I've had some strange things happen to me while in the mountains of NC, TN and GA - the following is probably one of the strangest - or at least the one incident that made me the most uncomfortable...

I was fishing Fires Creek with another angler from NGTO. I'm not sure if this was during the time that Rudolph was still at large or if it was after the fact, but remembering how it went down, it almost had to be before they found him.

We were fishing Fires Creek and having a decent day, hiking up the stream at a point where the road was very high above. We noticed a pretty large waterfall coming in from the non-road side and made our way to it. I wanted to climb it and check for brookies, but my partner was having a good day fishing Fires and didn't want to make the fairly dangerous looking climb. I agreed that we should probably just stick with the creek we were in and we turned to head back down, this time cutting through the woods in order to come out a little upstream of the junction between the two. As we got away from the spray of the waterfall we walked right into a "camp" of sorts. A small tee-pee shelter covered with pine and other tree limbs, and a single-person sized fire ring with some charred wood still in it - probably a few days to a couple weeks old. We looked at each other, and then both looked around in a 360 circle. Then, we both said quietly that it was probably time to just keep moving.

The "campsite" was backed up to a steep wall in the landscape where a vertical falls was present. There was only one way to easily approach it and that was from the stream side. You could not access the campsite directly from the road. You would have to get in the creek and walk upstream at least a 1/2 mile, or get in above the junction and walk downstream almost as far, as best I can remember. The road could be seen(and heard) from the creek, but it was 40 or 50 feet above it, straight up. To both of us it seemed the perfect place to protect your rear and have escape routes upstream, downstream and behind you if you were able-bodied enough to scurry up the steep wooded hill that ran off from the waterfall.

That experience, whether Rudolph had been there or it was just someone enjoying "roughing it" was the first of three strange or uncomfortable things that would happen to me over the last 10 years or so. The other two were being turned down for a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway by a serial killer( possibly), and spending the night unprepared in the woods after getting lost.

I'm not even sure if Rudolph made it all the way across the mountains to the Fires Creek area, but it's easy enough to hitchhike a ride there by car. Still gives me the chill-bumps either way.

Eric Rudolph spent at least of his time on the run in the Fires Creek area. Below is a link to a website that has pictures of his last hideout:

http://www.clayscorner.com/news.shtml

BlueRaiderFan

09-24-2010, 11:45 PM

Rudolph didn't know much about surviving. He did know a lot about stealing. Not impressed. JMO.

Owl

09-25-2010, 01:04 AM

Well, there was no corn at the site we happened upon and the shelter was a perfect size for one person, but it was well built by survival standards. Maybe he just got caught there one night at dark, or maybe it was just someone playing "Les Stroud." We'll never know, unfortunately. ?

Knothead

09-29-2010, 10:11 AM

Eric Rudolph made one mistake- coming back out of the mountains! If you are going to be "lost," stay "lost."

mayday

03-25-2011, 10:46 PM

I coordinated a search for Walter Barker from Portsmouth, Ohio beginning Nov. 4, 1998. Mr Barker was flying to Andrews, NC on the 4th to visit his son who was an FBI agent who in turn was looking for Eric Rudolph. Mr Barker crashed in the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock area about a mile from Maple Springs parking area and was killed. We searched for him for six years and a bear hunter found the crash site in October of 2004. I told the sons of the pilot that Eric Rudolph indirectly killed their dad. He was Rudolphs last victim.